Skyrim's "arrow in the knee" meme makes the jump from the internet to some lady's leg.

You can tell your infuriating internet meme has made the big leagues when impressionable types start branding themselves with it. The leg you see to the right, complete with the cartoonish arrow, belongs to tattoo artist Nikkisny. The pic was originally found on website FunnyJunk, along with an amusingly combative essay from Nikkisny:

I have a lot of silly tattoos along with tattoos that mean a lot to me. I am a professional tattoo artist and plan on being heavily covered. So I do NOT need to hear people bitching about how I'll 'regret it later'. I WON'T. I DO NOT REGRET ANY OF MY TATTOOS! I only live once so I'm doing what makes me happy.. whether you approve or not!

For those of you who have no idea what this "arrow in the knee" business is about - presumably because you've just emerged, bleary-eyed, from your stasis pods - it's a reference to an oft-repeated sound bite from Bethesda's Skyrim. For some reason, town guards - and by this I mean every town guard - will periodically inform the player that they too used to live a life of unfettered freedom and adventure, until their tomb-raiding career was cut tragically short by a crippling knee injury. Haha! You had to give up your dreams and settle for a life of endless drudgery because you were maimed! That's funny.

I got the meme when it started, I remembered a few guards saying it in Whiterun. Since the meme went crazy, I haven't heard a single guard mention it. This after making 4 new characters and getting them past level 20. Odd.

Dumb tatoo, but she can think the silly things are important to her. So be it.

OT: Well, if she's never gonna regret it, then props to her. I don't like tattoos, but if I ever had to get one, I'd choose something symbolic that wasn't born from the internet and that will be meaningful for years to come. Not...MEMES.I have a friend who has some Pikachu tattoos above her boobs. While that might be a geek's fantasy, I cannot help but wonder what her story gonna go like when she's narrating it to her grandchildren.

"Granny, what is that? Is that a tattoo of a raisin?""It's called a Pikachu. They became extinct one year after I got this..."

Sober Thal:I got the meme when it started, I remembered a few guards saying it in Whiterun. Since the meme went crazy, I haven't heard a single guard mention it. This after making 4 new characters and getting them past level 20. Odd.

Dumb tatoo, but she can think the silly things are important to her. So be it.

I've played about the same amount, yet literally I have never heard a guard say the "arrow to the knee" line. Not once. We should start a club or something.

OT: That's nifty. Now she should quit her day job so she can say "I used to be a tattoo artist, but then I took an arrow to the knee. See? It's right here!"

kind of a particularly annoying reference to skyrim. like if it had been some dragon word or badass symbol from the game, i would totally approve. but "arrow to the knee" started to annoy the hell out of me incredibly quickly

A: Lamest Meme ever. I guess everyone was looking around desparately because it had been 6 months since SPAAAAAAAACE with nothing really good/new on the horizon.

B: Is this really news worthy? A dumbass permanently scarred herself for something that is going to become tired and cliched in less than a year?

C: Yes, this is proof people are too stupid for their own good. I would say the only thing more brain dead would be to take an actual arrow in the knee, but hell, at least that would show a level of commitment. This is just going to be a passing fad, resulting in a cartoonish looking scar, that can never resemble what it is supposed to due to lack of depth and will become such an obscure reference that it will have to be explained every single time its viewed.

Congratulations, I have been slain by the arrow of unbounded ignorance that boasts a -50 to faith in humanity.

Caramel Frappe:Whiterun Guard: My cousins are out there hunting dragons and what do I get? .. Guard duty.

What's better is when you hear a guard say that particular line immediately after he or she was helping you take one down.

On Topic: It's not a bad tattoo, even outside of the Skyrim joke. Least it looks nice, ya' know. Hopefully (though doubtfully) this will close the book on the "arrow to the knee" repeaters. We get it guys, you played Skyrim. Just like everyone else.